NHLPA to meet this week

Sunday, April 24, 2005

The NHLPA reacted less than enthusiastically to the latest offers put forward by the NHL last week, but the PA is expected to discuss them with during a three-day meeting this week with the players' executive committee.

How the NHLPA responds will set the stage for the next act in the NHL lockout, which is more than six months old. 

The key among league's two offers is the first option, which has a short shelf life. That's the so-called "de-linked" system with a $37.5 million salary cap that could rise if league revenues increase over the length of the CBA.

The league also made a compromise by putting is a salary floor of $22.5 million. There was an also an upward move in qualifying offers to 85 percent from 75 percent.

But the most important part is the absence of linkage. The league felt it received indications that the PA might still be interested in negotiating a de-linked system and that's why the league put it into the mix.

That de-linked system will reportedly stay on the table until April 8. If it isn't being negotiated or agreed upon, then the league's second offer will be on the table. That one is a linked system where players will receive 54 percent of what the league calls hockey related revenue.

Both offers are steps back from previous NHL proposals. The league's de-linked salary cap offer before the season had been canceled was $42.5 million, but it didn't include the prospect of it growing with revenues. There was no salary cap floor in that proposal. The previous linkage offer had the players receiving 55 percent of hockey related revenues.

The NHLPA's response was no surprise. Executive director Bob Goodenow said the offers were very similar to those already rejected by the PA. Senior Director Ted Saskin said the league's offers were worse than previous ones.

The PA also criticized the league's plan for revenue sharing, which the PA says doesn't do enough to redistribute money to smaller market teams in the league and would just end up padding the profits of big market teams. 

As for how the NHLPA responds to the league's proposals, it's anybody's guess.

"I don't know what they do next," former Vancouver Canucks GM Brian Burke told CKNW Radio in Vancouver. "It's hard to see that they can do anything other than try and get that last number back on the table for a hard cap without linkage at $45 million or $42.5 million. But I think that horse is out of the barn." 

And if that de-linked system goes off the table and linkage is back on, it is back to square one as the NHL Board of Governors meets on April 20.

It is at that meeting when the league is expected to discuss the various replacement player options as teams turn in their homework assignments on how replacements would fare in their respective markets.

Although the league made it clear there would be hockey in the fall of 2005, Burke believes the NHL may end up singing a different tune when push comes to shove.

"I felt the message that came out of the last meeting with the owners where they said we will play next year was a clear signal that replacement players were definitely going to happen," Burke told CKNW. "No question about it. I was amazed at the strength of the messaging of that.

"I don't believe that's the case. I've done a little research on this. I still believe the league's best course of action is to maintain the black hole. If you have replacement players you give the players a finish line.

"I think the black hole is their biggest tool, their best weapon. I think that is what is going to happen. I don't think you'll see replacement players."